Re: Cold Calling
The main reasons why cold calling is so bad are:
1. You do not force your opponent to make a decision. Therefore, he cannot make another mistake. If he does make a mistake, it will cost him another bet, not the whole pot.
2. You do not gain any information about your opponent's hand. When you reraise someone, you are defining your hand strongly. Their reaction to this is often genuine.
3. It is more difficult to win without hitting your hand. If you suddenly wake up at the end of the hand, your opponent will likely be suspicious and call you down. This makes it much more difficult to bluff your way out of a bind. (This kind of play is opponent specific anyway, but needs to be set up in the early betting rounds as well as prior hands.)
This all assumes a limit game, BTW. Cold calling is not as bad in NL - but it still depends on your opponents...
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